This past weekend I had the opportunity to photograph the Dark Horse Climbing Competition at Metrorock climbing gym in Everett, MA.

That was pretty cool – some of the best young climbers from around the country going mano a mano for real prizes, and for the love of trying reealy hard. 😉

The three finals problems were set up so the competitors couldn’t see more than one at a time. Unfortunately, that meant that neither could I! As the competitors started at five minute intervals, I ran my butt off to get these shots, especially because I like to photograph these things from above, which meant climbing down from a shot, running around the gym and climbing up somewhere else.

And despite growing a few new muscles in the process, I missed a lot of the action – bummer!

But then, that’s how it goes when one person tries to be in three places at once.

So here are a few of the early highlights culled from the 440+ shots I took, most of which have yet to be processed.

Isabelle Faus holds onto a whole lotta nada as she balances around the holdless corner on Problem #1: